Starla wins DeafVerse competition
THE DAILY MOTH:
In May, I announced in a news video that DeafVerse had a competition for deaf middle and high school students to invent a sign. They announced their winner a few weeks ago.
[Video clip from DeafVerse]
JUSTIN PEREZ:
Let’s reveal the winner!
STARLA:
Hi! My name is Starla.
And I go to a mainstream school.
After some thought, I came up with a sign for Deafverse.
It’s this. (Shows sign)
THE DAILY MOTH:
Here is Starla and her parents from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Hello!
ANTHONY:
I’m Anthony. (Signs name) I’m the father.
SUZETTE:
I’m Suzette. (Signs name) I’m the mother.
STARLA:
Hello, I’m Starla. (Signs name).
THE DAILY MOTH:
DeafVerse is an educational video game developed by a deaf team at the National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes at the University of Texas.
Starla’s image and name will become an animated character.
[Video clip showing the transformation into an animated character]
JUSTIN PEREZ:
Congratulations!! You’ve helped us finally have a sign we can use for Deafverse!
THE DAILY MOTH:
I asked Starla what she thought of her animated appearance.
STARLA:
The art, whoo…
ANTHONY:
That was very good.
STARLA:
Yes!
SUZETTE:
It’s very good. Impressive.
STARLA:
It is awesome. Whoever drew that… excellent! Very excellent. It’s almost like, you know, the Spider-Man, the new cartoon movie. You know that one, yes?
[Image showing a DVD poster of Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse]
STARLA:
I am very impressed and I like it a lot. So, I’m going to say it again, whoever drew that, that’s fire.
SUZETTE:
Good job!
ANTHONY:
Fire.
THE DAILY MOTH:
We have a happy customer here! The illustrator is Carlisle Robinson.
(Sponsored Video from Convo)
THE DAILY MOTH:
Here is the parents’ reaction.
SUZETTE:
I was thrilled and had goosebumps at the same time. It’s like, I’m very proud of her because I knew she had the ability. She has it.
ANTHONY:
Yeah, for me, it was amazing. You know, as a father of three, they always give me amazing moments such as using an advanced vocabulary word, showing their hidden talents, or the way they think and express themselves. I’m like, you know that word? You can do that? It’s really amazing. Now, my daughter is on a video game? So this is how I feel. This is amazing. (Does a dance). That’s how amazing it feels!
THE DAILY MOTH:
I love seeing that family bond. You can play the DeafVerse game at deafverse.nationaldeafcenter.org.
However, you won’t see Starla’s character in there, as she will be in the next release of the game.